Red Lionesses of Luxembourg claim historic SCA title on home soil

Luxembourg are the winners of the 2019 Small Countries Association (SCA) women’s championship. The ‘Red Lionesses’ fought their way back from a set down to secure a 3-1 victory in the gold medal match with Scotland played on Sunday afternoon at the iconic d’Coque in Luxembourg City. This success bodes well for the Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) that Luxembourg will be contesting later this month in Montenegro.

Luxembourg lost the first set 23-25 but regrouped to claim three in a row (26-24, 27-25, 25-21) at the end of a very close fight to end the Scottish winning streak in the tournament. The Scots were yet to lose a single set going into the gold medal match.

After three competition days, Faroe Islands completed the podium, courtesy of their 3-0 victory (25-11, 25-13, 25-11) in the bronze medal match with Northern Ireland. Ireland settled for the fifth place after securing their first victory in the competition in the classification match with Greenland (3-0; 25-15, 25-23, 25-18).

Despite the absence of some SCA powerhouses such as Cyprus and Iceland, it is a truly historic success for Team Luxembourg. Never before had the ‘Red Lionesses’ claimed gold from the SCA (formerly SCD) event. Luxembourg had previously finished runners-up four times (2005, 2007, 2013 and 2017).